End of the road for UTV?

I really don't see it as an "England must control everything, and the nations are just a bolt on" issue at all.
As much as this is a forum about TV presentation, the truth is that for the vast majority of viewers, it is less of an issue where pres is, or what form it takes.
From 1955 ITV has had strong regional identities, but over time they have all faded away.
Central / Tyne Tees / Granada - when they lost the in vision announcer, was there uproar?
Not really - maybe a brief moment when it was acknowledged that it was changing, but no more than that.
An out of vision voice has been the norm on the BBC and Channels 4 & 5 for years.

Now there are many more channels to choose from - and not one of them has in vision continuity.

My question is do the people of NI care enough, as long as the programmes are still there?
The note that local shows are correctly signposted is a good one - the final output to every station should be correct for the viewer of that service.

The idea that this is just English arrogance is complete rubbish - this is about adapting to new realities, and putting the money where it matters, not on something that is generally overlooked by viewers - wherever they are.

It's also far better to have a concerted effort across the nations than just a token effort. In the dying days of ITV Wales it was a tiny "Wales" under the logo with network continuity IIRC - arguably more of an insult than a nod to the significance of the Welsh region.

Worth remembering to that BBC2 has lost it's local continuity in Scotland now without much fuss, as did Wales and NI for a period under COVID restrictions.

I wouldn't say so rarely, exactly. Infrequent perhaps but the cause of events and circumstances mean that there's fairly often one region or another that decides to do something different. BBC North East & Cumbria had a schedule variation that evening BBC One network threw a wobbly, a week or so back now.

Regardless, I'd have thought modern technology could allow presentation such as trails to be regionally preempted and replaced with something else via automation without needing someone to sit in a regional gallery to press a button when the offending item is due to appear. Obviously, much of the existing equipment is fairly old but if and when it's overhauled, especially if it's more centralised and certainly more automated, I don't think it'd be so outlandish to have something like that in place.

Surely it would make sense that when the programme is uploaded to the servers, that there is a local ident and pres uploaded alongside it. Maybe two - one with the expected schedule mentioned, and a more generic one in case of later changes.

A point I'd raise is UTV had described itself once as a 'conservative' broadcaster (not in the political definition of the word), impacting on the presentation they were responsible for then providing.

While the continued use of in-vision continuity announcers may've been seen as outdated and twee to some, UTV felt it was acceptable to their audience at the time, and so be it.

An elderly relative of mine, who lived on their own, used to enjoy seeing the UTV announcers on camera, as they were among the few familiar faces and voices they'd encounter; being local folk no doubt enforced the warmth of their regard.

True, the passive viewer won't think twice about different voices introducing programmes on ITV; they're just there for 'Coronation Street', local news, 'The Chase' etc.

Regardless, there'll be a handful of people who'll call for the comfort and, for want of a better word, the continuity which Belfast-based continuity has provided.

There's been (and rightly so) tributes to Julian and Gillian from the media and viewers so far, along with an apparent, unspoken acceptance that change happens - and right now, changes of greater significance are affecting Northern Ireland which are more worthy of our current concern.

Kaleidoscope have recently added some 1970s Ulster TV junctions to their YouTube account and the bizarre thing (from a modern eye) is that they never mention their name at all. The only thing that identifies that it's Ulster are the adverts for Supermac etc and the accents in them





This one only has a tiny logo on the weather

Indeed. It was literally just slapped on over the network continuity, and they never seemed to get the timings right, meaning "Wales" would still be on screen for a split second after the ident had finished, so for example you'd often see a black screen with "Wales" in the middle of it just after the ident.

I do find with BBC Wales now I actually appreciate the BBC Cymru Wales stings used before locally made programming more than the continuity being from Cardiff.

I personally don't care for regional announcers, but I do care for regional identity, as it brings a lot more regional flavour. I really hope that ITV aren't going to rebrand to ITV NI or ITV Ulster.

ITV management now could not care less about regional identity. I bet if ITV could junk all regional news commitments they would, they have scaled back regional news to the bare bones limit required by regulations.

That’s not quite true is it?

Yes, as they want to offer national programming which attracts the biggest audiences and commercial revenue. Regional news and regional programmes are loss makers.

If you don't believe me, just look at the cut backs in regional news. Blink and you miss them updates on GMB. A pointless 4 minute lunchtime update. The evening programmes across a large chunk of the regions are pre-recorded, as they are split regions.

ITV News London at 6.00pm is largely pre-recorded too, as they have to share a studio with the national news, meaning even the London regional news on ITV is considered unimportant to not have their own dedicated studio.